. >> the best day to be a planner in america was july 9, 2004, when dick jackson, howie frumpkin and lawrence frank came out with a book called "urban sprawl and public health." and what that book finally did was put some technical epidemiological meat on the sociological bones that we plan ors have been arguing about and said in no uncertain terms the suburbs are killing us, and here's why, and cities are safe us, and here's why. by far the greatest aspect of the epidemic is the obesity epidemic. all the illnesses that obesity leads to. principle among them diabetes. diabetes now consumes 2% of our gross national product. a child born after 2000 has a one in three chance in america of becoming a diabetic. we are now looking at the first generation of americans who are going to live shorter lives than their parents. that's probably not a huge surprise to you. we've all been talking now for a long time about the wonders of the american corn syrup-based diet and the 40 ounce and 08 ounce sodas people are drinking, but only recently have the studies been done comparing diet and physical